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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28273659">Long Distance Call</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu'>Nununununu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Mandalorian (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aftermath, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family, Fix-It of Sorts, Healing, Hopeful Ending, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Resolution, Season 2 Episode 16 spoilers, The Force, What-If</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:49:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,595</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28273659</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>There came a little something. Something unexpected. Something that felt like the tiniest nudge at the far corners of Din’s mind. It felt –</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>It felt like the kid.</i>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Din Djarin &amp; Grogu | Baby Yoda, Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>901</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Long Distance Call</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>If the Force could be used like a telephone</p>
<p>(Includes a deliberate tense change. Update: slightly edited since posting)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>In truth, if not for the certainty his feet would take him directly after the kid, for a moment there was the distinct possibility that Din would have just –</p>
<p>Walked away from it all. The helmet on the floor at his feet. The people – friends and enemies – behind him, conscious and not. The unwanted weight of the weapon hanging from his belt. Just taken off his armour, leaving it piece by piece behind him together with the darksaber, and gone –</p>
<p>To find a way out. To find an escape pod – there had to be one. To find somewhere, anywhere – anywhere he could just –</p>
<p>Not be someone.</p>
<p>Not to disappear permanently – he had made a promise, after all. But just to disappear for a bit. A nameless, faceless – <em>hah</em> – person in some unknown place; somewhere no one wanted anything from him, somewhere he wasn’t <em>known</em>.</p>
<p>He wasn’t known. Not now. Not really. Except –</p>
<p>The kid had known him. Knew him. They’d come to know other, just a bit. And now Grogu was gone.</p>
<p>So why shouldn’t he go too?</p>
<p>Why not, indeed.</p>
<p>Dragging in a shallow breath that only served to make his ribs ache, his eyes pressing closed, readying himself to find out whether this was what indeed he was going to do – or what <em>else</em> he could might would do with what few jagged pieces it felt like he had left –</p>
<p>There came a little something. Something unexpected. Something that felt like the tiniest nudge at the far corners of Din’s mind. It felt –</p>
<p>It felt like the kid.</p>
<p>
  <em>Grogu?</em>
</p>
<p>His eyes snapped back open, unseeing. Should he chase after it? No point in thinking about it – he already was. His mind crying out for the kid.</p>
<p>
  <em>Grogu!</em>
</p>
<p>What he should have said back at the seeing stone. What he should have said many times since then. When he’d first seen those cuffs around the kid’s hands. When the kid had reached for him. When the kid had reached for that monitor – for the Jedi – instead.</p>
<p>Before that other door had shut on his son.</p>
<p>His son –</p>
<p>No. No, he can’t think that now. The pain is –</p>
<p>The pain is.</p>
<p><em>Grogu! </em>His mind cries the name ever louder (his cheeks are wet). There isn’t – wait.</p>
<p>There is an answer.</p>
<p>Not in so far as a word, anyway. But there is a sensation. A louder feeling, as it were, as if he’d opened that door back up, but inside him somehow. A connection in the back of his brain.</p>
<p>The feeling of the kid calling to him in return. And then –</p>
<p><em>I’m sorry, </em>A different voice calmly says inside Din’s mind – how is this happening, what is happening –</p>
<p>Oh. He knows this person. The Jedi.</p>
<p>There’s a faint graze to the edges of his mind alongside to that voice, like the kid is still there. Like he’s listening in. Approving. Wanting Din to listen and hear what is said.</p>
<p>So.</p>
<p>So Din does. He does. Thinks cautiously back to the Jedi rather than rejecting the man’s intrusion; rather than railing against it. Thinks a careful <em>go on.</em></p>
<p>He has trusted this man with the most precious person in the galaxy. So he can also trust him with this.</p>
<p>In comparison, it’s easy.</p>
<p><em>Yes, </em>says the voice, perhaps a little amused, perhaps a little wry. <em>The Jedi. </em>For the most part though, he sounds incredibly earnest. <em>This is irregular, I know; but who is to say that just because something is or was ‘regular’ that makes it correct? Anyway, I couldn’t risk telling you in person and I do apologise for that. I can tell you now.</em></p>
<p>And so Din listens as the Jedi tells him of his name, of the temple he’s planning to establish, of the other children he’s searching for; others with the same connection to the Force in need of training. Of a place where Din’s son can master his abilities and learn to defend himself more deeply and easily, and have time to heal from all the trauma he’s experienced in those long years that, to the child, were at once a blink in the vast stretch of his lifetime yet to come and an eternity.</p>
<p>For Grogu to have the opportunity to flourish and have greater agency. To make another choice of his own in the future, whatever that may be.</p>
<p>Skywalker doesn’t specify the location of that temple. But there comes that sense of approval again from the kid, and Din can’t deny the wisdom of keeping such information private.</p>
<p>That while it might hurt not to know where his child is going, it is better for the sake of keeping the little one – and the other children – safe. And thinking of Grogu being safe doesn’t hurt at all.</p>
<p>It feels good.</p>
<p><em>The other Jedi felt it best not to train him, </em>Din thinks carefully, as while Grogu is aware of this – is he aware of this? – he has no desire whatsoever to say something that might hurt or upset his son.</p>
<p>Would it upset him? Grogu hadn’t really reacted before. How much had he understood?</p>
<p>How much does he understand now?</p>
<p><em>The – other Jedi? </em>For the first time, Din senses that he has surprised Skywalker. The connection between them – between their minds – seems to flicker out for a moment, and Grogu’s presence grows stronger in place.</p>
<p>A feeling of warm approval comes with it – of Ahsoka?</p>
<p>Of Din?</p>
<p>Of the thought of returning to a temple, of being able to train again – yes, he does want that. Although he approves of the nice lady, too.</p>
<p>He approves of Din.</p>
<p>The emotions that wash through Din’s mind for a moment are, in truth, too strong to label as simply ‘approval’ (his cheeks are even wetter). But it’s okay. <em>It’s okay</em>. He lets the kid sense his own approval – not approval, but something far more than that – in return.</p>
<p>
  <em>I promised you, didn’t I.</em>
</p>
<p>He can almost hear Grogu’s coo of agreement. Can almost feel his kid’s hand wrapped around the necklace; Din’s own hand closes around the smooth round shape of the ball tucked into his belt.</p>
<p>A touch of sleepiness from Grogu then; a faint feeling of warm drifting, like his son will soon be in need of a nap.</p>
<p><em>I do apologise, </em>Skywalker sounds almost a little sheepish on his return, but the ‘knock’ of his powers to the door of Din’s mind is polite and light-hearted. Like he’s happy, almost. <em>You gave me – much to think about.</em></p>
<p><em>It’s all right, </em>Din considers this and finds that it is, indeed, all right. Lets him in.</p>
<p><em>I apologise that we’re going to have to go shortly too, </em>There’s the impression of a slight smile to the other man’s thoughts, <em>I’m amplifying the connection between you and your son, but it takes a lot of concentration and we’re going to soon be out of the range I can comfortably achieve. </em>A little amusement there again; a little rue, <em>As much as my droid might tell you otherwise, I am sometimes needed to help fly this ship.</em></p>
<p>The sense of laughter from Din’s son as Grogu stirs; the impression that the droid might have said something rude, just beyond the range of Din’s awareness.</p>
<p>He takes a breath in, but doesn’t sigh. An answer there to a question he has ached to ask.</p>
<p>But.</p>
<p><em>Grogu has a strong connection with you, </em>Skywalker continues unexpectedly, although he sounds a little tired now, a little distracted perhaps. An undercurrent of a different emotion he doesn’t name. <em>In the past, Jedi used to insist all connections be cut on beginning training. </em>He continues before Din can respond, <em>I’ve come to believe it might prove best to take a different approach. Grogu contacted me through the Force. With time and more experience, I believe he and I might be able to reach out to contact you like this again.</em></p>
<p><em>He – and you?</em> Din doesn’t say.  </p>
<p>The thought of speaking to Skywalker again like this isn’t objectionable, somehow. And the thought of speaking again to his son –</p>
<p>Of being apart, but not truly parted –</p>
<p><em>Thank you, </em>Din means this. How he means it.</p>
<p><em>You’re welcome, </em>This comes with a smile, he’s certain, <em>I’ll leave you to have another moment with Grogu, if he’s awake enough for it, and then we must head on.</em></p>
<p><em>All right,</em> There’s the sense of Skywalker fading out, and then Din is alone once more with the sleepy bundle that is his son.</p>
<p>He can almost feel the weight of Grogu back in his arms. It doesn’t feel like a ghost in the slightest. Instead it feels like a premonition.</p>
<p>The ache this thought causes is in his heart, not his ribs. A good, clean, healing pain.</p>
<p><em>Grogu? </em>Din thinks this very quietly, not wanting to disturb the kid, <em>It’s time for you to go now. </em>A smile (his cheeks are still wet, but he can’t stop smiling). <em>Again.</em></p>
<p>A dozy stirring; that warmth wrapping even further around his mind, like an embrace. Eyes slipping gently closed this time, Din clings onto the feel of it in return.</p>
<p>Imagines grazing a kiss against that soft little forehead.</p>
<p><em>Sleep now; you’ve got some way left to travel, </em>He might not be there when his son wakes, not precisely. But he’ll definitely be thinking of him. Din has some way left to travel, too. Together with the people – the friends – behind him or not; with his helmet or without it; towards whatever the future will bring.</p>
<p>And neither of them will be alone.</p>
<p> </p>
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